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LONDON - U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million and mostly destined for Africa in France after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning groups to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a global sexual and reproductive health provider, estimated the decision would lead to , 110,000 unsafe abortions and around 700 preventable maternal deaths.

The supplies, due to expire between April 2027 and September 2031, include contraceptive implants and pills as well as intrauterine devices to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, according to Reuters.

The IPPF said 77% of the supplies were earmarked for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali.

The U.S. State Department declined to comment on the current status of the contraceptives. A date for the incineration has not been announced.

A State Department spokesperson told Reuters in July that a decision had been taken to following President Donald Trump's decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid in January.

Destroying the contraceptives will leave more than without medical supplies, Mallah Tabot, IPPF's African regional office lead, told Context.

Most of the contraceptives were supposed to be shipped to African countries that rely on these medical supplies. How does it feel knowing that?

This act is really just based on nothing but dangerous ideology and a political ideology that just tries to weaponise political power to control women and women's bodies and how women plan their families.

Just when we are trying to make sense of the sweeping USAID cuts, now we have to contend with another man-made, senseless act.

Destroying them is really indefensible from a public health perspective, from a humanitarian perspective because a lot of these countries are also facing humanitarian crises.

Also from an economic perspective, there's just no way to defend such a senseless act.

We do hope that they make the rational decision and ship these life-saving commodities to where they're needed the most.

Do you have any idea where the stock is at the moment?

No idea at all. We do not have any additional information on how that's going. But we're hoping for the best outcome.

If the decision does go ahead, what impact will that have?

In the majority of these countries, USAID and the U.S. government have been the primary suppliers of modern contraceptives.

So the stock that is in the pipeline of being destroyed represents a huge share of the annual contraceptive needs of these countries.

In Tanzania, for example, we estimate this is of their annual contraceptive need. For Mali, 24%. For Kenya, 13.5%.

We can anticipate a lot more unintended pregnancies. We can anticipate a lot more unsafe abortions. And these numbers translate to increased maternal deaths, disrupted education, deeper cycles of poverty for women and girls. I can go on and on.

How have the aid cuts affected your work?

We are in a time where global health aid is shrinking, where the risk of dying from preventable maternal deaths for women and girls is rising because of the same actions of the U.S. government.

The global estimate we had was people at risk of losing access to critical and life-saving reproductive health services.

In Malawi, U.S. funding cuts were estimated to slash over 27% of services to women and girls. In terms of specific numbers, we're talking about over 172,000 clients losing access to services in 211 clinics across the country and 27% of staff were under threat.

With that also comes community trust, which is on the line. These are organisations and clinics that have historically provided sexual reproductive health and rights services to the most vulnerable and marginalised in the most resource-strained communities.

So these are real impacts on the lives of women and girls in the most resource-strained context and who have to contend with the risk of unintended pregnancies, of maternal deaths, and of unsafe abortions.

So really, our call is for common sense to take centre stage and for women's health to be prioritised.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

(Reporting by Lin Taylor, Editing by Jon Hemming)